Pixie Ducks
by blueglows
Summary: When fights arise between two kingdoms, an arranged marriage is proposed to ensure the peace.
1. Chapter 1

Pixie Ducks

**Rating:** K+ (PG)

**Pairings:** Liquidator/Bushroot, Quackerjack/Megavolt  
**Warnings:** Slash  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own the characters or the original show idea. I did make up this story and I'm the one to write it, but it is non-profit.  
**Summary: **When fights arise between two kingdoms, an arranged marriage is proposed to ensure the peace.

**Other Info: **AU

Chapter One

The two kingdoms had lived in peace for many a year. Each kingdom had its own diverse population of fairies. The Kingdom Ja-Ang resided by the river. The river ran into the forest that was nestled by the Kingdom Lycium. They shared the border opposite the river and forest respectively. Residents from either kingdom were allowed to cross the border easily.

One day, fights started to spring up around both kingdoms. No one was sure what caused the fights, but the people from both kingdoms were starting to feel animosity towards the other kingdom. The fights had continued on for a week before the royal families decided something must be done…

...

Prince Bushroot of the Kingdom Lycium was in his garden. He wore the symbol of his kingdom on his short sleeved tunic and wore a gold and green circular clasp above the symbol to show that he was of royalty. As a plant duck, he had leaf like wings that, along with the other exposed green part of his body, absorbed sunlight as he worked in the garden.

His purple head petals fell into his face. He brushed them away casually and moved out of his crouched position to sit on his legs. "Some water would be nice…" he mused to himself.

The leafy limb of a nearby tree bent and handed the prince a cup of water.

"Ah. Thank you." The prince took the cup and the branch went back to its normal position. As a fairy, Prince Bushroot had control over a small realm of magic. His was a telepathic communication with plants. In this way, he could bid the non-sentient plants to do his bidding, though he tried to be polite to them about it, or he could talk to other plant fairies through a mind link. Most plant fairies had this ability, and the ones that didn't have the ability still knew about it so it was only strange to the various other types of fairies.

The prince finished his water and the branch took the cup from him to set it on the table. The plant duck picked up his trowel again and went back to work on the garden.

"Prince Bushroot?"

"Ack!" He dropped the trowel and jumped up quickly. He turned and saw that it was only family's advisor. "You startled me."

"My apologies, Prince." The advisor bowed his head, "But you need to come to the council chamber as soon as possible. And please try to look presentable."

"What?" Prince Bushroot looked down at the dirt on his trousers and hands. "Right." He quickly brushed off the dirt and followed the advisor to the council chamber. "What's going on?"

"You are aware of the fighting going on between the kingdoms, correct?"

"Of course. Everyone is aware of it."

"Well we may have come up with a solution to stop the fights."

"Oh? That's good."

"It is." The advisor opened the doors to the council chamber and let the prince in.

"Ah, there he is, our son," the king of Lycium said.

Prince Bushroot made his way over to his parents. He noticed three fairies, canines made of water, sitting across from them. From the symbol on their clothes and their clasps, he realized that they were the royal family of the Kingdom Ja-Ang.

"Bushroot, this is the king and queen of Ja-Ang and their son, Prince Liquidator."

"Nice to meet you." Bushroot bowed slightly. He took a seat and waited to hear the proposition to stop the fights.

"As we all know," the king of Ja-Ang started, "The recent fighting is taking toll on the people of our kingdoms. For whatever reason the fights are starting, there is now tension between our people that we must correct before things go to far."

"It's been suggested," Bushroot's father said, "That we have an arranged marriage between our children."

Prince Bushroot looked up at his father and then at Prince Liquidator. Prince Liquidator looked upset at the proposed solution.

"So I have to marry Prince Bushroot?" he asked. He didn't want to believe that was true, but when he was told it was true, he chose what he thought was the appropriate response. "No! I don't want to."

"…Excuse us for a moment." The king of Ja-Ang got up with the queen following. The king dragged his son out of the seat and into the corner of the room to talk some sense into him.

The watery prince glared at his parents. "You can't just make me marry someone like that."

"Liquidator," the queen said, "It's for the good of our people. With tensions as high as they are, we need to show that their can still be happiness between our people. And what better way than with the union of the two kingdom's princes?"

"But I just met the guy!" Liquidator argued, "How can I be happy with marrying someone I don't even know?"

"Well you're just going to have to grin and bear it," the queen of Ja-Ang insisted, "Honestly, we don't all get what we want in life."

"I still think I should get a choice in this."

"You do have a choice. You can either marry Prince Bushroot, or we can disown you and you can live on the streets. Or perhaps with that bizarre friend of yours?"

Liquidator gasped and looked at his mother fearfully. "You wouldn't!"

"She would," the king of Ja-Ang said, "Son, you are better off marrying the plant fairy. You two should make a good match since you're water, after all."

"…What does that have anything to do with this?"

"Oh you…" The queen of Ja-Ang pulled on her son's ear. "You've been skipping your tutoring sessions, haven't you? Of all the common knowledge to not know, especially since it applies to our allies…"

The royal family of Lycium watched from their seats.

"She's forceful, isn't she?" Prince Bushroot commented awkwardly.

"We can be just as bad to you," his mother told him. "I'm just glad that we don't have to. It's nice to know that you're mature enough to know that it's important for you to marry Prince Liquidator."

"Uh… Yeah…" Prince Bushroot actually just didn't want to complain for fear of what might happen if he did. He hoped for the life of him that there would be some way to end the fighting so that he wouldn't have to marry someone he didn't love.

The royal family of Ja-Ang returned and took their seats again. Prince Liquidator pouted a little and sighed when he saw his parents giving him a look. "Fine, I'll go through with the marriage."

"Very well then," the king of Lycium nodded.

"Let's arrange the wedding for a week from now," his wife said, "This way we can give the two some time to get to know each other."

"Oh, that is a good idea." The queen of Ja-Ang nodded. "They can meet at the border of our kingdoms tomorrow morning. Understood?" She looked at her son again and he nodded.

"Right, sure." Prince Liquidator looked at Prince Bushroot. "Tomorrow."

The plant prince watched as the watery prince slipped through the door after his parents. He sighed. There was nothing to do but wait until tomorrow.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

The rat zapped at a bug with his electrical powers. His wings cackled from the same electricity magic that he used on the bug. He was an electricity fairy by the name of Megavolt and a friend to the prince of the Kingdom Lycium. The clasp on his shirt was silver and red showing that he was a working class, but he had two clasps of gold and blue on his belt to show that he was friends with a higher power, in this case, Prince Bushroot. Megavolt was waiting with his friend right now for the prince of the kingdom opposite them.

"When do you think he's going to come?" Megavolt asked, "I'm getting bored."

"I'm sure he'll come eventually," the plant duck said, "We just have to be patient."

"You said he's made of water, right?" Megavolt frowned a little, "Do you think we'll get along? Water conducts electricity and I'll short-circuit if I get wet."

"You'll be fine. Just don't give him reason to get you wet."

"Right… Do you hear something?"

Prince Bushroot raised his brow and looked at his friend. "Like what?"

"Like a rhythmic thumping." Megavolt looked around and pointed at something. "I think that's making it."

"Oh?" Prince Bushroot looked at what Megavolt was pointing at. "Oh… That's strange…"

The cause of the noise was a fairy on a strange jumping device. The fairy seemed to be dressed like a jester and had butterfly like wings, but it was hard to tell what rank he was, or even where his clasp was, when he was jumping so much. The clown duck jumped off the device and landed in front of the duck prince and the rat. Once he stopped moving it was easy to tell that he didn't have a clasp on at all, but the symbol on his clothes showed that he was from the Kingdom Ja-Ang. "Hi! I'm Quackerjack!"

"Um… N-nice to meet you." Prince Bushroot felt a little perplexed at the fairy and wasn't sure how to respond. "I'm Bushroot."

"I'm Megavolt."

Quackerjack grinned. "Licky will be coming in just a moment."

Prince Bushroot and Megavolt glanced at each other to see if the other knew what the jester had meant. "Uh… Licky?" the prince asked.

"Yep! Prince Licky. Or Liquidator as you probably want to call him. But he'll be coming soon, don't worry."

"Right…" Megavolt took a careful look at the fairy. "How do you know him?"

"I'm his friend!" Quackerjack grinned and pointed his thumb at himself. "I'm very fun to be with, after all. Especially with all the toys I make!" He laughed.

"Toys…?" Megavolt glanced at the prince again and Prince Bushroot shrugged.

Quackerjack watched them and smiled. He somehow pulled some items out of thin air. "Toys! Like these. Tops, yo-yos…" He pointed to the jumping device he approached them on. "Pogo sticks. Everything could be a game if you just know how to play!"

Prince Bushroot looked at the so-called "toys." He had never seen anything like those before. "What kind of fairy are you?"

Quackerjack reached behind his back while holding his toys and when he pulled his hands back to his front, the toys had disappeared. "I'm a… Ooh! Look! Here comes Licky!"

Prince Liquidator went up to them, a sour look on his face. He directed his gaze at Quackerjack. "Not only did you run off without me, but you knocked over a lamppost on the way here!"

"So?" The clown asked indignantly. "It's not like they were lit. I didn't cause any fires this time, right?"

"…They?" Prince Liquidator groaned. "You knocked over more than one? Someone needs to fix those now, I hope you realize."

"Wait, did you say THIS time?" Megavolt asked. "You caused fires before?"

Quackerjack gave him a slightly crazed grin. "Maybe…" he said in a sing-song voice.

"Yes." The watery canine looked at the rat. "He did. At least five times within the last year."

"Fires are pretty though," Quackerjack said, "Very bright… If only there wasn't burning destruction…"

"That's really weird." Megavolt commented

"So are you, Sparky!"

"Wait, what?" Megavolt frowned. "Don't call me Sparky!"

"Why not?" Quackerjack grinned. "You don't like it, do you? I think I'll keep calling you Sparky then."

"Oh you better not…"

"Fine… Sparky."

Megavolt scowled and tackled Quackerjack. The two started to wrestle with each other, trying to pin the other to the ground. The jester was laughing, thinking that it was a game.

Prince Bushroot watched them, partially disturbed. He looked at the other prince. "Your friend is… strange."

Prince Liquidator sighed. "You noticed that he doesn't have a rank, right? Or at least, he has no clasp signifying one. That's because he's a rank higher than anyone else."

"Even us?"

"Yep. Even higher than royalty."

"What rank could be higher…?"

The watery prince looked at the plant duck. "Insanity."

Prince Bushroot thought about this and sighed. "Yeah, I believe that. Are we going to stop the two from fighting now?"

"Nah, I was thinking we could take bets." The prince grinned and then frowned when he the other prince gave him a scolding look. "I was joking, sheesh."

They turned back to the fight and saw that Quackerjack had tied Megavolt up with a colorful rope (probably another toy), and was holding the electric rat against the ground.

"Say it! Come on, say it!" the duck taunted.

"Say what?" Megavolt asked, struggling to get out of his grip. He went still for a moment and managed to turn his head to look at the jester. "It?"

"…" Quackerjack silently got off Megavolt and pulled him up. "Normally people fall for that joke longer." He pulled on one end of the rope and the rat spun around as he was untied. Quackerjack grinned as Megavolt fell to the ground as a dizzy mass. "Cute! Like a top!" He gripped the rope by the handles on the end and spun it around himself, jumping every time it went near his feet. "Jump ropes are fun!"

"Yeah…" Megavolt tried to shake away his dizziness. "Sure."

Prince Bushroot helped his friend up and looked at the other prince. "This is my friend, Megavolt. You don't mind if I bring him along for whatever we were going to do today, do you?"

The other prince shrugged. "I guess not. I'm bringing Quackerjack along after all. He invited himself, unfortunately."

Quackerjack grinned and the jump rope disappeared behind his back like the other toys. "Oooh, it's going to be so much fun!"

"Right…" Prince Bushroot made a mental note to stay away from the deranged duck – especially after what he just did to Megavolt. "What do we have planned, anyway?"

Prince Liquidator looked up at the other prince. "Um… Nothing. I thought you would have something planned."

"Uh… No, sorry."

Quackerjack grinned. "We could always go for a boat ride on the river!"

"What?" Megavolt asked, having gotten over the dizziness. "But I don't like to get wet!"

"You won't get wet if you stay in the boat." The jester grabbed Megavolt's wrist and pulled him towards the river. "Come on!"

The plant-duck watched the other two and sighed. "I take it he's really energetic?"

"Yeah." The watery canine sighed. "Kind of a handful. We should probably go after them. Might as well get this trip over with, anyway."

Prince Bushroot nodded and started after their two friends.

Prince Liquidator stayed behind for a moment and shook his head. "Why do I have to marry him? This stinks…" He followed after the other three, starting to contemplate more on his defiance of the arrange marriage as he went.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Prince Bushroot caught up with Quackerjack and Megavolt at the river's edge. Megavolt stood away from the river, not wanting to get wet. The clown tapped his foot impatiently as the prince approached.

"Great, you're here. Took you long enough." He looked behind the plant-duck at the path. "Where's Licky?"

"Oh, I don't know." Prince Bushroot looked over his shoulder at the path. "I thought he was behind me."

"Maybe he ditched us?" Megavolt asked.

"Oh, Licky wouldn't do that," Quackerjack waved his hand as if to brush off the idea. "Sure, he may hate the fact that he has to marry Bushbrain here and would want to avoid spending time with him because he doesn't like him… But his mother is scary enough that he would try to tolerate this."

"…Bushbrain?" Prince Bushroot sighed, not understanding the clown. How could anyone be so disrespectful to royalty? Maybe it came with the insanity… "Well, I'm not exactly fond of the idea that we have to marry either."

"Oh, why not? You two are so perfect for each other." Quackerjack grinned.

The plant-duck raised his brow and was about to answer when Prince Liquidator came up to them.

"Sorry," he said, "What did I miss?"

"Nothing!" Quackerjack giggled. "I was just waiting for you so I can get the boat out!" The jester pulled out a small bundle from seemingly nowhere. He pulled on a handle and the bundle expanded to a small boat with a duck head at the bow.

"That's a boat?" Megavolt asked.

"A rubber ducky boat!" Quackerjack climbed into it. "I made it!"

"Really?" Megavolt walked up to the boat and looked at it. Quackerjack grabbed the electric rat and helped him get in without getting wet.

Prince Bushroot glanced at the other prince and then got into the boat as well. Prince Liquidator got into the boat last and sat at the stern. He stuck his hand in the water and the boat went downstream.

"Licky has control over water," Quackerjack said, "Because he's a water fairy, you know?"

"That makes sense." Prince Bushroot nodded, "I can control plants."

"I control electricity," Megavolt grinned and displayed his powers by having sparks cackle about his gloved hands. He looked at Quackerjack. "What magic do you have?"

The clown shrugged. "I think magic is overrated. I don't use it."

"Wait, you don't?" Prince Bushroot asked, "But your toys… You keep pulling them out of nowhere…"

"No I don't." Quackerjack raised his brow. "What makes you think that I do?"

"Well, I…" Prince Bushroot trailed off when he noticed the look the watery prince was giving him. It seemed like the other prince didn't want him to continue with the observation. "Never mind…"

Quackerjack pouted for a moment, feeling like something was being kept from him. He shrugged it off and looked at Megavolt. "So you can control electricity? That's great! I was thinking or powering some of my toys with electricity."

"Really?" The electric rat grinned. "Most people don't see electricity as a power source! They have general magic for that. It's really a waste that they think it can only be used for defense… You think you could power your toys with it?"

"Oh, sure!" Quackerjack nodded. "A lot of my toys are hand-powered, but I've made a few that I've been making that I want to try to power with electricity. I could show you them later."

"Great! Do you… Do you make all your toys?"

"Pfft. Of course." The jester grinned. "Of course I make them. It's not like you hear about any other fairies with toys, right?" He frowned a little at that thought. "It's a shame. That means no other fairies know how fun they are…" Quackerjack grinned again and laughed. "But that just means I get to show them!"

"You're not doing a very good job of it," Prince Liquidator interrupted. "Especially after all the destruction you cause with your toys."

"Well… That's just…" Quackerjack crossed his arms and pouted. "You always ruin my fun…" he whined.

"Aw…" Megavolt rested his hand on Quackerjack's shoulder, for some reason actually wanting to comfort the strange duck. "I'm sure they'll come around eventually…"

"Ha! See!" The clown draped his arm over Megavolt's shoulder and pulled him close. "At least Megsy understands!"

"Wait, Megsy?" The electric rat tried to pull away, beginning to regret trying to be friendly.

"Well, sure!" Quackerjack let go of Megavolt. "You don't like Sparky, so why can't I call you Megsy? Don't tell me you don't like THAT nickname either."

"I guess you could call me Megsy…" He rubbed the back of his neck, thinking it over. "It's better than Sparky, that's for sure."

The jester grinned and hugged Megavolt. "Thanks, Megsy! Ooh, you're the first one to actually let me call them a cute nickname!"

The rat blushed a little and tried to pull out of the hug. Prince Bushroot watched them with a raised brow. "I can't imagine why," the plant-duck said sarcastically. He still didn't like the name Quackerjack had addressed him by.

Prince Liquidator looked at him. "What did he call you?"

"Bushbrain… Don't laugh!" Prince Bushroot frowned, seeing the canine snickering. "It's not funny!"

"Actually, it kind of is." Prince Liquidator laughed a little and then relaxed. "You're right though, it's worse than 'Licky' is."

"If it makes you feel any better," Quackerjack chimed, finally letting go of Megavolt again, "Liquidator isn't his real name!" He grinned at the water pup's look of shock.

"It's not?" Prince Bushroot asked, "What is it then?"

"It's Bud! Bud Flood!" The jester giggled. "It rhymes! But he doesn't like it, so he goes by Liquidator. But I call him Licky, because it's funnier!"

The plant-duck looked at the other prince's scowling face. "Bud?" he asked in disbelief. Prince Liquidator nodded and sighed. Prince Bushroot shrugged. "That's not so bad… Bushroot's actually my last name. My first is Reginald."

The other three fairies smirked after hearing his name, all thinking the same thing. Prince Bushroot frowned, immediately wishing he hadn't said his name. He waited for the inevitable to come.

"So you're saying…" Prince Liquidator started, "That you're Reggie the veggie?"

"…Yes."

The other two started laughing and Prince Bushroot sighed. "It's not funny… And why are you laughing?" He looked at Megavolt. "You already know what my name is, Elmo."

Megavolt cringed. "Okay, I won't laugh anymore."

"Your name's Elmo?" Quackerjack asked. "That's adorable!"

"You… You think so?" Megavolt smiled a little. "It's Elmo Sputterspark."

"Ooh, even better. Kind of fitting too!" Quackerjack smiled back at Megavolt and looked at the princes. "So are you two happy with each other yet?"

"What do you mean?" Prince Liquidator asked.

"Well, you're being friendly with each other. I was wondering whether you actually like each other enough to happily marry!"

"…No, not at all." The watery prince looked at the other prince and then back at Quackerjack. "I don't see how I could be happy marrying Reggie the Veggie."

Prince Bushroot frowned. "Don't call me that. I go by Bushroot, you know."

"So?" The other prince looked at him snidely. "If I'm not going to be happy with this marriage, I don't see why you should be. Which reminds me, why didn't you bother to protest yesterday? Don't tell me you actually want to marry someone you don't love."

"Well, I don't but…" Prince Bushroot frowned. "I don't see how anyone could love you if you act so nastily. You weren't acting like this earlier."

"Maybe I didn't feel like it."

"But you feel like it now? Are you trying to pick a fight or something? I hope you realize that it won't accomplish anything, especially since that's the whole reason we're supposed to get married in the first place."

"Well I…" Prince Liquidator sat back, a small frown forming on his face. He turned to the jester who seemed to be snickering at them. "What are you laughing at?"

"You!" Quackerjack grinned. "I've never seen you flirt before! It's funny!"

"Flirt?" Prince Bushroot scrunched up his face. "That was flirting?"

"No, it wasn't!" Prince Liquidator frowned. "It wasn't flirting!"

"Then what else could it be?" Quackerjack persisted. "You never act like that for anything. And you obviously like Bushy, so it HAS to be flirting."

"I… He… You…" Prince Liquidator had trouble finding the right words and settled for pushing Quackerjack overboard.

"Hey!" The clown fell into the water. He poked his head out from the surface and glared at the prince. "That wasn't funny!" He started to swim (despite the difficulty of swimming with wings) and got back up to the boat which hadn't moved since Prince Liquidator pushed him overboard. Apparently, even if the canine was being cruel, he wasn't so cruel that he wouldn't keep the boat still with his control over water while Quackerjack struggled to get back to it.

The jester had trouble trying to scramble back into the boat, but fortunately, Megavolt started to help him back on. Quackerjack managed to get back in with his help, but Megavolt got water on him and ending up shocking both himself and the clown.

"Ouch!" The electric rat and the duck pulled away from each other as soon as Quackerjack was safely in the boat. "That's why I don't like getting wet!" Megavolt exclaimed.

The clown shuddered a little from the jolt. "I can see why! That hurt!" He glared at Prince Liquidator for pushing him overboard. "I don't see why you did that if Bushbrain's the one you like!"

"I don't like him!" The prince insisted. As if to prove his point, a large splash of water hit the plant-duck. Quackerjack pulled a polka dot umbrella out of no where and held it open to prevent the splash from hitting Megavolt and himself. Prince Liquidator looked at the three of them and then at the water pooled up on the bottom of the boat. He used his powers and coaxed the water back into the river. "Um… I didn't do that…"

The three other fairies glared at the watery prince. Prince Liquidator looked down, to avoid their glares. He brought the boat ashore. "Um… There's a clearing nearby, we can stay there for a while so you can dry."

"Thanks…" Prince Bushroot muttered bitterly. He was soaked and unhappy. The plant duck couldn't understand what had gotten over the other prince so suddenly.

"…Clearing?" Quackerjack asked, "The one I like to go to?" The watery prince nodded and Quackerjack grinned again. "Great!" He jumped out of the boat and pulled Megavolt out with him. "Come on! I can show you my toys!"

"Ack! Uh… Okay…" Megavolt righted himself and looked at the princes. They got out of the boat as well and Quackerjack took the time to deflate it and bundle it up again. The bundle disappeared along with the umbrella behind his back. The clown took hold of Megavolt's hand and dragged him quickly down the path.

"Come on! It's this way!" he called to everyone.

Prince Bushroot glanced at Prince Liquidator for a moment before shaking his head and sighing. He followed Quackerjack and Megavolt down the path, leaving the canine alone again.

Prince Liquidator frowned and followed quickly, wondering where the splash came from and why he acted like he did. He wondered how he was even going to apologize for it.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

The four fairies arrived at the clearing, and it was evident that it was the clearing they were looking for. Quackerjack's toys were scattered about, making it certain that the clown had played there many times before. Quackerjack ran about the clearing, dragging Megavolt along with him to show him all of his toys.

Prince Bushroot watched the two for a moment before finding a large rock to sit on. The rock was in the sunlight, so he would be able to dry off quickly. He wasn't as wet as Quackerjack was at least. Speaking of which, Prince Bushroot looked over at the jester and the electric rat. Megavolt seemed to be perfectly fine with being close to the duck. That meant that Quackerjack was somehow already dry. The plant-duck supposed that all the running around had air-dried Quackerjack quickly.

The watery canine sloshed into clearing, watching all the others, a small frown on his face. Prince Liquidator felt like something strange was going on in the kingdoms. As he thought about it now, he realized that all of the fights between the kingdoms started up at random, and the people involved never had a good reason for why they started to fight. It was like how he hadn't a reason for the way he acted to the other prince. And the splash of water definitely wasn't his fault…

Prince Liquidator looked over at the plant-duck. Prince Bushroot had removed his shirt and clasp, laying them to the side as he sat with them in the sunlight. The plant-duck seemed to be happy, strangely enough. Prince Liquidator was sure that he would still be upset due to him. He thought that the other prince might actually still be upset, but just hiding it. He knew he had to apologize, but he wasn't sure exactly how to… The best way seemed to just improvise and hope for the best…

The plant-duck stretched his arms and wings, enjoying the feeling of absorbing sunlight. He had also absorbed the water on him into his body, so he was able to photosynthesize at the moment. It was nice to have a meal after what happened on the boat with Licky. Prince Bushroot realized what he had called the other prince in his mind and almost chuckled at it. Quackerjack was right; it was a cute nickname for the prince. If only Prince Liquidator had been so agitating…

Prince Bushroot glanced to the side and noticed that Prince Liquidator was actually approaching. At first, he was worried that he was going to be bullied again, but then he noted that the other prince seemed a little nervous.

The watery canine made it up to Prince Bushroot and stood there for a moment, trying to figure what to say. "Are you alright?" He cursed mentally, realizing how stupid of a question that was.

Prince Bushroot raised his brow as the other prince asked the question. "I am now. I had a nice meal."

"Nice… Meal? What?"

"You don't know?" the plant-duck asked. "Well I suppose it's alright if you don't know, I shouldn't be too surprised… Uh… It's a plant thing, you see. Plants 'eat' through photosynthesis. Basically we convert sunlight, water, and air into energy…"

"Oh, I see," Prince Liquidator nodded, "So then… The water that was on you…?"

Prince Bushroot shrugged, "Just absorbed it into my body. I prefer actually drinking it, but absorbing it is nice too. It has a really nice feeling… And the sunlight has to be taken in with the green parts of my body, which is why I took off my shirt… I should probably put that back on now…"

"Right…" The watery canine looked at the ground for a moment as the other prince dressed, remembering that he hadn't actually apologized yet. "Listen, I… I'm really sorry for what happened on the boat… I really don't know what came over me. I'm not usually like that."

"Oh, it's fine," Prince Bushroot smiled softly. "Already forgot about it, really."

"Are you sure?" Prince Liquidator raised his brow, "I mean, with everything that's been happening… It's bad enough that we have to marry because of the fights, me starting one with you wasn't a very good thing."

"Exactly. If I stayed angry at you, that would probably just start another fight. You know you've done something wrong and you've apologized, so why shouldn't I forgive you?"

The watery prince looked up at the plant-duck. He smiled. "You know, you're really mature. It's a really nice change from Quackerjack." It was true, he liked the other prince's maturity. Prince Bushroot was smart too, so that was a bonus. He was nice, had a lovely shade of blue eyes… Wait, what?

Prince Liquidator was distracted from his thoughts, though extremely glad for that, by a small explosion on the other side of the clearing. Both princes looked up to see Quackerjack and Megavolt scorched and some of the plants and toys around them on fire. Prince Bushroot winced as he felt the plants pain. Prince Liquidator quickly put out the fires, avoiding getting Megavolt wet.

Prince Bushroot followed, looking to the charred fairies. "What happened?"

Quackerjack shook off the ash and pouted. "Mr. Electro-breath blew up my toy!" he whined, "I worked hard on that and he just went and blew it up!"

"I didn't mean too!" Megavolt protested, brushing off the ash on himself. "Something hit me and made me use too much electricity. I didn't mean to over-power it like that!"

"You better not have!" Quackerjack continued to pout and looked down at the toys that had caught fire. "Ooh… My toys…"

"It can't be that bad," Prince Liquidator pointed out, "You make these things all the time."

"That's not the point!"

Megavolt frowned, looking downcast. "I'm sorry, Quacky…"

The jester glanced at him. "Oh don't look like that. Now you're making ME feel depressed." He hugged the electric rat. "It's okay, just don't do it again."

Megavolt smiled and hugged back. "Okay, I won't."

The two princes glanced at each other, both wondering the same thing about the relationship status of their two friends. Prince Bushroot cleared his throat and the two stopped hugging. "What are we going to do now?" the prince asked.

"Oh, I don't know," Quackerjack grinned at the plant duck. "You like plants right? Then let's explore the forest!"

"Are you kidding?" Prince Liquidator asked, "We'd get lost for sure."

"Well I don't see you coming up with any better ideas, Licky." Quackerjack pouted, "And I'm sure Melonhead could keep us from getting lost, since he can talk to plant life or something, right?"

"…Right." Prince Bushroot decided not to comment on the "Melonhead" nickname. "I wouldn't mind exploring the forest," he admitted, "There might be some interesting plant life in there."

"Yeah, and I don't want to go back near the river again," Megavolt added, "Not after what happened."

"Yeah!" The jester agreed, "You owe it to us, Licky! Especially me, since you pushed me into the water."

Prince Liquidator sighed. "I don't know… How do we know the forest is safe?"

"If we knew that, it wouldn't be an adventure," Quackerjack smiled and laughed, "Ooh, just come on! It'll be fun, I'm sure!"

"Wait, there's a risk of danger?" Prince Bushroot asked, ready to change his mind. He wasn't aware that the forest might not be safe.

"Maybe!" Quackerjack laughed again, grabbing onto Megavolt's hand. "Come on!" he said, pulling the electric rat down a nearby path.

"Yeah," Megavolt called back to the princes, "What's the worse that could happen?"

Prince Liquidator sighed, shaking his head as the two ran ahead of them. "We better catch up with them before they get lost." He looked at Prince Bushroot, strangely tempted to take his hand. He resisted temptation and quickly followed their friends down the path.

Prince Bushroot raised his brow, a little confused by the look that Prince Liquidator had just given him… It was like the look earlier, before the explosion… What hit Megavolt to cause it, anyway? The plant-duck lightly shook his head, deciding to forget about it for now and hurried to catch up with the others.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

The plant-duck caught up to Prince Liquidator and noticed him glancing around nervously. He noticed that Megavolt and Quackerjack were no where to be found. "Prince Liquidator?" he asked cautiously, "Where are the other two?"

The watery prince winced and glanced at the other prince. "Well… About that… I can't seem to figure out where they went."

Prince Bushroot frowned. "Really. So we lost them." The statement caused the other prince to wince again and nod and the plant-duck sighed in response. "Well that's just great…" he muttered sarcastically.

"For all I know, they may have gone off the path." Prince Liquidator sighed. "That's the kind of thing Quackerjack would do. …What are you doing?"

Prince Bushroot had walked up to a small bush and bent down to talk with it. He glanced at Prince Liquidator when he asked the question. "Getting directions." He turned back to the bush and continued talking to it. "We're looking for a duck in multi-colored clothes and a rat in yellow, both fairies. Did you happen to see which way they went?"

Prince Liquidator watched the other prince and was mildly surprised when the bush seemed to nod. It pointed out a branch towards another bush. The canine assumed that meant that their friends went off the path like he thought.

The plant prince, however, frowned at the answer given. "That's not a real plant… Strange… You said someone moved it there after the two went down that path?" The bush nodded again and the prince thanked it. He got up and looked towards Prince Liquidator. "I think someone was trying to separate us on purpose…"

Prince Liquidator frowned. "Really? But who would want to do that?"

"I don't know," Prince Bushroot admitted, suddenly getting a bad feeling about things. He chuckled nervously. "Hey, maybe this is related to the fights? …Maybe someone's trying to- Eep!" The prince cowardly jumped into Prince Liquidator's arms as he heard someone rustle in the bushes.

Prince Liquidator looked a little surprised and felt himself warm up a little. He felt bubbles forming inside him and knew that it was a water person's form of blushing. He hoped that the plant-duck in his arms didn't know that.

However, Prince Bushroot was too distracted by what may be in the bushes to notice the other prince's embarrassment. When a small squirrel crawled out, hurrying to the other side of the path, he laughed, embarrassed himself. "S-Sorry…" He got down from Prince Liquidator's arms, his cheeks turning a slightly darker shade of green. "I startle easily at times."

"It's fine," the watery canine muttered. Why was he feeling like this? He knew what his thoughts and actions would be about if it was anyone else, but he just met the other prince. It wasn't like he was starting to "fall in love" or something… He noticed the Prince Bushroot staring curiously at him. "Um… Are you alright now?" he asked awkwardly.

"Yeah…" Prince Bushroot nodded, "What about you? You're acting a little weird."

Bubbles started to form again and Prince Liquidator turned away quickly. "Yes, I'm fine," he said quickly enough to come out harshly, "Let's just find our friends."

The plant-duck frowned, thinking the other prince was upset with him again. "Alright…" he said, not wanting to say anything else that could start a fight. From what he could tell, the watery canine was probably "boiling mad…" He was certainly bubbling enough for it.

Prince Liquidator moved the fake bush out of the way, revealing another path behind it. He glanced back at Prince Bushroot and noticed him frowning. "Are you alright, Reggie- I-I mean, Prince Bushroot…"

"I'm fine," Prince Bushroot nodded, "Are you? You seem upset."

"I'm not upset," Prince Liquidator "blushed" again, realizing what the other prince thought about him, "No, I'm just… Uh…" He turned and started down the path, "I'm not upset," he told him again.

"Oh…" Prince Bushroot raised his brow, but followed the canine, accepting his answer. "…You can call me Reggie if you want."

"Wait, really?" The watery prince looked at the plant-duck. "But earlier…"

"Earlier, you were making fun of me because of my name," Prince Bushroot answered, "I really don't mind being called Reggie. And… I know we just met, but I don't think we need to be so formal with each other."

"Fine…" Prince Liquidator smiled. "I can call you Reggie. …What about Reginald?"

Prince Bushroot shrugged, "I rather someone call me Reginald only if they really cared about me."

"Oh…" The canine realized that he probably couldn't call him "Reginald" yet if that were the case. He was certain that he LIKED Reggie, but not sure if it was enough to… LOVE him… "You could call me Bud, if you want…"

The plant-duck smirked a little. "But I'd much rather call you Licky."

"…" Prince Liquidator splashed a little water in his face before grinning. "Fine. Call me Licky. But we should probably go back to finding Quackerjack and Megavolt."

Prince Bushroot wiped the water from his face and nodded. "Right, Licky." He smiled, glad that they could be friendly with each other now. The plant-duck followed the other prince down the path.

After about an hour of walking further into the forest, the two princes still hadn't found their friends. The path became narrower and eventually ended. Prince Liquidator sighed. "Well that's just great. If they aren't here, then where did they go?"

"I don't know." Prince Bushroot turned to ask a nearby plant, but immediately had to dive away from a fist. "Ack!"

"Reggie?" Prince Liquidator turned to see what was happening and was immediately surprised by the wingless cloaked figure that was currently attacking the plant-duck. "Reggie!"

Prince Bushroot dodged the figure's punches but was taken by surprise when a net covered him. "Licky!" he cried, hoping for help from the watery canine.

Prince Liquidator was about to help when more cloaked figures appeared, coming out of no where and blocking the path to the first figure and the other prince. He growled and hit one of the figures with a flow of water from his hand. The other figures jumped out of the way, but then moved in towards the canine.

The plant duck struggled against the net. He mentally called for the plant life to help him, but before anything could, the figure that attacked him sprinkled powder on him. Prince Bushroot coughed as he accidentally breathed in the powder. His thoughts became blurred and he could no longer concentrate on what was happening. Once he passed out, the cloaked figure picked him up and began to carry him away.

Prince Liquidator saw his friend being taken and growled again. "Reggie!" he called. Glaring, he turned to the figures only to have powder thrown into his face. "What the-?" The powder dissolved and his mind became muddled. He collapsed to the ground, starting to lose control of his form and become a small puddle. "Regi... nald…" he muttered. Just before he completely passed out, he saw the cloaked figures moving closer and an arrow fly overhead. Then it was black.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

It was night. There were voices. There was also a source of light and heat. The puddle wasn't sure what was happening. Its mind spun as it tried to determine what was happening. It peeked up, trying to comprehend the world. The puddle noticed its clothes lying next to it and quickly morphed back into his normal princely form.

"Oh, you're awake." Prince Liquidator looked up at the odd figure who spoke. "How do you feel?"

The figure was a duck, but definitely not a fairy due to the lack of wings. He had twisted horns on his head and a long devil's tail. He was wearing primarily purple and an odd hat. Glancing to the side, Prince Liquidator noticed a similar figure wearing a green and purple archer's outfit, but this one was a younger girl.

The prince looked back at the first one. "Not good…"

"Well, nightshade powder will do that to a person." He got up and took a dramatic pose. "You're lucky that I, Darkwing, was able to save you in time!"

"You saved him?" the girl asked, "I'm the one who got the imps away from him! You're just the one who let them escape!"

Darkwing quickly covered the girl's mouth. "Uh… Ignore her."

Prince Liquidator raised his brow. "I see… If they were imps, then what are you?"

The girl managed to push Darkwing's hand away. "We're imps too, but we're not evil like those ones were. The Empire Dawidu was recently taken over by the evil imp Negaduck. We were lucky and managed to escape his reign."

Darkwing nodded. "Yep! Now we're trying to fight against Negaduck and take him down. However, most of the Empire Dawidu fights for their new emperor, either out of fear, or loyalty AND fear. Right now, my daughter, Quiverwing, and I just saved you from his clutches."

"Who are you anyway?" Quiverwing asked.

The older imp glanced at his daughter. "You need to do your homework, young lady. This is obviously the fairy prince of the Kingdom Ja-Ang. Prince Liquidator, right?"

The canine nodded. "Yes. You… Seem familiar. Something about the Empire Dawidu and you remind me of something, but I can't place it."

"Just think about it. I'm sure it will come to you eventually."

The younger imp looked at the prince. "So what are you doing so far away from your kingdom?"

"Well, Quackerjack and Megavolt insisted on exploring the forest and they ran off without us. So Reggie and I were looking for them…" Prince Liquidator trailed off when he remembered what had happened to the plant-prince. "Oh, shoot! I just remembered, Prince Bushroot! Those… imps kidnapped him before you two showed up!"

"The prince of the kingdom Lycium?" Darkwing asked. "This isn't good. The peccable parasite is probably planning pandemonium by plundering the plant prince."

The canine blinked a few times in confusion. "…What?"

"Negaduck is probably going to cause chaos of some sort by kidnapping Prince Bushroot," Quiverwing explained.

"No. I meant, why did he use alliteration?"

"Oh, that?" The young girl laughed. "It's because he's weird."

"Am not," the older imp argued. He turned to the fairy and bowed slightly. "Prince Liquidator, I would be honored to help you rescue Prince Bushroot. Whatever Negaduck is planning can't be good for anyone, and your friend would be safer out of his hands."

"Not to mention it would help his reputation," Quiverwing chimed before her father covered her beak with his hand again.

Prince Liquidator raised his brow at what the girl had said but chose to ignore it and turned back to Darkwing. "I would appreciate the help. But my friends Quackerjack and Megavolt are still missing. We should really find them. They might be able to help rescue Reggie- I mean, Prince Bushroot."

Darkwing nodded. "I understand, but we should rescue Prince Bushroot as soon as possible. Negaduck has not been known to treat his captives well, and if we wait too long, it might be too late to rescue him. We'll search for your friends in the morning, but if we can't find them right away, we'll have to leave without them."

"If time is important, then why can't we search now?" the water pup asked.

"Because Quiverwing here has already been up an hour past her bedtime waiting for you to wake up and as a growing girl, she needs her sleep." Darkwing looked at his daughter who made a face at being treated as a baby. Still, she left to her set up bedding to sleep. The older imp watched Quiverwing before glancing at Prince Liquidator. "How close are you to him?"

"Huh?"

"Prince Bushroot. How much do you care about Prince Bushroot? I've noticed you've slipped a few times and called him by his first name, so I was wondering…"

"…" The fairy canine sighed. "Enough. I didn't at first, when we were supposed to marry to stop the fighting that's been happening between our kingdoms… But we got to know each other and… I hope he's alright."

The imp nodded. "I understand. You like him. Dare I say love?"

The prince didn't answer right away. At length, he nodded slowly.

Darkwing nodded as well. "We better go to sleep now. The sooner we sleep, the sooner morning will come and then we can find your friends and rescue Prince Bushroot."

Prince Liquidator nodded and morphed back into a puddle, trying to go back to sleep. Darkwing watched the prince, his daughter, and the fire for a few more minutes, thinking about what they would have to do the next day.

...

Meanwhile, Prince Bushroot groaned as he began to become conscious about the pain in his body. He glanced around, noticing it was very dark. He never liked the dark, since he was a plant and needed light to live. The plant tried to pull forward, resulting in the rattling of chains as he realized that he was currently bound to a wall.

"What the…?" With his head spinning, he was still unable to comprehend what was happening. Slowly, he began to remember the wingless cloaked figures, the fight, and getting knocked out by that strange powder. He realized that he must have been kidnapped and frowned, looking around for any source of light to be able to tell where exactly he was and why he had been kidnapped.

He could only hope that Licky had escaped whatever fate awaited the plant.

A door creaked opened and light filled the area. Prince Bushroot closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again to let them adjust to the new amount of light. He looked up at saw a duck with a frightening appearance had entered the cell he was in. He had no wings, twisted horns on his head and a devil's tail, wearing primarily yellow and an odd red hat.

The plant shivered a little from the cold glare that the imp was giving him.

"Enjoying yourself?" the imp hissed, "I hope not."

"Wh-Who are you?" the prince stuttered, trying his best not to sound afraid, but failing anyway.

"Look at you," the imp spat, "Pathetic. I thought I would have built up enough of a reputation by now. I'll certainly gain one soon enough… I'm the ruler of the Empire Dawidu, Negaduck. You BUGS better learn to fear that name, since I'll be taking over your kingdoms soon."

Prince Bushroot winced at the derogatory term for fairies. "What do you mean by 'taking over?'"

"I mean I'm going to forcibly become to new ruler of Lycium and Ja-Ang! At first I was trying to start a war between your kingdoms…" Negaduck held a malicious grin at the thought. "After you war, you'll be weakened enough that I can take over. At first, I tried starting a war by starting fights. My lackeys were supposed to spread hellbine powder to make you bugs fight each other. They even got that water prince while you were in that stupid boat."

Prince Bushroot frowned as he learned that the imp in front of him was the cause for the fighting in the fairy kingdoms as well as Licky's bad attitude earlier.

Negaduck continued his speech. "But the powder doesn't seem to be working well enough. So instead I'm just going to hold the princes ransom instead." The imp emperor scowled again. "Unfortunately those knobs I call lackeys couldn't even capture you both."

The plant-duck felt some relief that Licky hadn't been capture. Still he recognized the dreadfulness of him being there. "It won't work," he said in defiance, "Prince Liquidator and the others will take you down! I mean, what do you have? You're just a magic-less imp."

Negaduck growled and pulled out a strange device from behind his back. The device had a large, sharp, spinning blade and made a terrible sound as it spun. "I have this…" he hissed, bringing the device close to the prince.

The plant-duck's eyes widened and he pulled away, trying to shrink against the wall to put distance between the blade and himself. "Okay, okay, fine! I get it now!"

The imp took the device away and it disappeared behind his back once more. "Glad you see it my way." He turned away. "Guards!" Once two of the cloaked lackeys showed up, Negaduck continued. "Watch him and make sure he doesn't try to escape. I'll be busy making plans of what to do with my newly acquired kingdoms."

The guards saluted and stood watch in front of the prince's cell. Negaduck left the cell, locked the doors, and left.

Prince Bushroot frowned, wondering what was going to happen to him and the fairy kingdoms.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

"Quackerjack! Megavolt!" The watery prince called for his friends for the umpteenth time that morning. As the group searched the forest, the fairy was starting to grow more concerned and less convinced that they could find the two.

"Maybe they were taken hostage as well," Quiverwing commented, "Or they possibly could have been killed! Maybe they were even- Mmph!"

Darkwing gave Prince Liquidator a comforting smile as he covered his daughter's mouth yet again. "Don't worry, I'm sure they're fine. But we should only stay for a short time longer before we should leave for Dawidu…"

The canine nodded, frowning. "Fine…" He glanced around the forest and sighed. "Where are those brats?" He continued to follow the imps as they navigated their way through the forest, searching for the missing fairies. If they could find the two, then they would have extra firepower in rescuing Reggie. He missed the plant-duck and was worried about his safety.

"Tell me about your friends," the older imp said, "So we know what to look for to find them."

"Well… Quackerjack is a duck, wears a colorful jester outfit, is mentally insane and has an obsession with things he calls 'toys.' Megavolt is a rat with electrical powers… I only met Megavolt yesterday, so I don't know much about him. He's Reggie's friend." Prince Liquidator paused for a moment before correcting himself. "Prince Bushroot's friend."

"Toys?" Quiverwing asked, "What are those?"

"Just these weird magic-less playthings that Quackerjack makes… He's really a weird fairy. I don't know why he never uses magic."

"He doesn't?" Darkwing asked. "That is strange… Even if we imps don't have natural magic like fairies do, we do compensate by using powders made from things with magical properties. Like the nightshade powder used to knock you out yesterday. A fairy not using magic is unheard of."

Prince Liquidator shrugged. "Well, that's Quackerjack for you. …What are you doing?"

"Shh!" The imp in purple looked around cautiously. "Someone's watching us."

"How can you tell?" Quiverwing asked.

"Shh!" Darkwing signaled for them to be quiet once more. "Listen!" he hissed quietly.

The prince and the girl listened and heard a slight rustling of leaves. Quiverwing raised her brow at the noise. "That's probably just the wind," she insisted.

She was proven wrong when a person jumped out of a nearby tree and tackled the watery canine.

"Prince Liquidator!" the two imps cried in alarm.

The prince felt the person hit him, almost going through his watery form. Then he felt the person grab at his clothes and saw a familiar sight.

"You jerk!" Quackerjack cried. "You ditched us! We were stuck here all night because you ditched us!"

"Oh get off me," Prince Liquidator said in annoyance as he pushed the insane jester away. "I didn't ditch you. You ran ahead of us and we lost you. If anything you ditched us."

"Oh… Oh yeah." Quackerjack grinned sheepishly and looked up into the tree and called, "Megsy! Are you coming down or not?"

There was a grunt and some more rustling of leaves. "I think I'm stuck…" Megavolt called back down. "Oh wait, I think I… AH!" A weak branch cracked off the tree, falling to the ground with the rat still hanging onto it, causing Quackerjack to backflip away to avoid being hit. Megavolt groaned and flipped over. "Ow… Shouldn't Prince Bushroot have done something about that?"

"Yeah, where is Bushbrain?" Quackerjack asked, "And who are your friends?"

"I'm Quiverwing," the girl said.

"And I'm Darkwing," the older imp said, "I presume that you two are Quackerjack and Megavolt?" He helped the rat back up. "It's good that we found you before Negaduck's cronies did."

"Negaduck?" Megavolt asked, "Who's that?"

"That's the current emperor of the Empire Dawidu, right?" Quackerjack asked. He looked at everyone's surprised expressions. "What? I read over some of Licky's lessons that he doesn't do. Like the previous emperor was D-"

"Anyway!" Darkwing interrupted, "Prince Bushroot has been kidnapped by the evil emperor and now we have to go and save him! It will be a risky rescue to retrieve the rifled regal from the riled ruffian!"

Quiverwing and Prince Liquidator half-lidded their eyes at the imp's use of alliteration. Quackerjack raised his brow and grinned.

"You have such a way with words," he commented.

Megavolt frowned. "So we have to rescue Bushroot? It sounds dangerous…"

"Well then," Darkwing gave a confident grin. "Let's get dangerous." He motioned for everyone to huddle together. "Alright, so here's the plan…"

...

Prince Bushroot groaned slightly. The imp guards outside his cell had a little light on so that they could see, but wasn't nearly enough to allow him to photosynthesize. The dungeon was damp enough that he had the water he needed, especially since there was now a leak of water dripping onto his head every now and then. It was starting to get annoying and his foul mood at the lack of light wasn't helping things.

If only he could get outside… He was sure it was morning now, and he hoped for the life of him that there was sunlight. He could faintly make a connection with plants somewhere above him, and they seemed happy enough. They were probably having a good meal.

Plants… The duck thought about that a little more. If he could get outside, then he could have plants to help him… Then he might be able to escape… It was certainly worth a shot.

"Hey, uh… Guards?" Prince Bushroot almost backed down as the imps looked at him. Their cloaked silhouettes were very frightening. Still, he continued. "I would think that if you're holding me ransom, you would want to keep me alive, right? You can't barter off someone who's dead… So that would include keeping me from starving, right?"

The two imps looked at each other and then at the prince, both nodding as they agreed with the logic.

"Well, I'm pretty much starving right now, without sunlight. I need to go outside to be able to eat, being a plant and all." The plant-duck watched as the two bore their sights into him. After a moment, he grinned sheepishly. "Please? You could keep me chained up… I just really need to eat."

The guards looked at each other again, nodding in agreement once more. One unlocked the door to the cell and went up to Prince Bushroot to bring him upstairs and outside. Prince Bushroot tried his best not to give away what he was planning.

...

Quackerjack struggled with the disguise, trying to put it on without his wings showing through it. He gave up and pouted. "It's no fair!" Quackerjack turn to two figures dressed in similar outfits to the one worn by Prince Bushroot's kidnappers. "Licky can change his form to hide his wings and Megsy can cut the electrical flow to his. Why is it so easy for YOU to hide your wings?"

One figure shrugged. "Fairy wings are vestigial." came Megavolt's voice from the shadow of the hood. "It's not like any of us can actually do anything with them, being so weighted down by magic. We only have them to be able to tell us apart from other species out there."

"Well I can't hide mine," Quackerjack said, "So how can I wear the disguise?"

Quiverwing walked up to the jester, wearing a disguise as well but currently keeping her hood off. "Do you have any toys that could help?"

The fairy duck made a face. "Not without it hurting…"

"If you be patient I could get some magic powder to hide them," Darkwing commented, "It'll be temporary and they'll still be there, it'll just seem like they're gone."

The fairy duck continued to make a face. "Magic?"

"Just for a little while," The older imp was starting to feel like he was dealing with a child. He had enough of that with his daughter. "You need to wear the disguise after all, or we'll be caught."

"Yeah, about that," Prince Liquidator spoke up as he took off his hood. "These outfits are purple… I know you have a thing for this color, but don't the imps working for Negaduck wear yellow?"

Darkwing looked at the prince for a moment, blinking a few times as he thought about it. He frowned. "Quiet. I know what I'm doing. We'll get through this fine, you'll see."

Quiverwing rolled her eyes. "Dad's too egotistical to think that any of his plans are wrong," she whispered.

"I'll say," Quackerjack whispered back. He watched as the older imp search his belongings for a magic powder that could help.

"Oh, this one should work. Windroot powder." Darkwing opened a small sack of powder and sprinkled some on Quackerjack's wings, much to the fairy's annoyance. "Also known as butterfly weed."

The jester made a face once more at the alternate name for the plant powder being used on him. "Are you implying something?" he asked in an accusatory tone.

"No, no, not at all," Darkwing insisted quickly, "It's just coincidence, I swear."

Quackerjack stuck his tongue out a little and looked at his back at his now-missing wings. He finished putting on the disguise and sighed. "How long does it last?"

"Until you take the cloak off again, unless you get wet and it washes off."

"Oh I hope not the second one," the jester turned towards Prince Liquidator.

The canine sighed. "I said I was sorry!"

"So we're going to rescue Bushroot now, right?" Megavolt asked.

"Yep!" Darkwing said. "Everyone remember the plan?" Once everyone nodded, he nodded as well. Everyone made sure to have their hoods up and disguises on properly. Darkwing then pulled out another sack of powder. "Jet powder," he commented, taking a handful of the black powder. "Hold your breath and stay close," he ordered before throwing the powder to cover them all. They all disappeared from the forest.

A moment later, they reappeared within Negaduck's fortress, hidden in the shadows by the outer wall. Four out of five of them were currently sick to their stomachs with the fifth one having no stomach to speak of but feeling very dizzy.

"The quickest way to travel?" Prince Liquidator asked.

"Yeah," Darkwing managed to get out before groaning slightly.

"But not the best," the prince finished his observation.

Another moment later, all five of them were feeling better and they went to continue their plan. Unfortunately, seeing Prince Bushroot walk out into the courtyard called for a change of plans.

"Reggie!" the canine whispered, seeing the other prince appear across the way.

"You called him Reggie?" Quackerjack asked his friend.

"That's not nearly important as the fact it messes up our rescue plans," Darkwing hissed. "He must be planning something on his own."

"Well duh." Megavolt said, "Prince Bushroot is one of the smartest guys I know. And he's a plant fairy with plant telepathy and we're outside in a plant filled courtyard."

Right after Megavolt finished saying that, plants pulled the guard away from the plant-duck.

"Ha!" Quiverwing said, "That'll teach Negaduck to procrastinate on destroying nature inside his fortress." She grinned under her hood but then frowned again once she saw dozens of yellow-cloaked imps moving towards the plant prince to apprehend him. "Uh-oh."

"Uh-oh is right," Darkwing motioned for the rest to follow him. "Come on, we need to help Prince Bushroot."

"Right!" The fairies and younger imp followed the leader of their rescue party towards the fight where Prince Bushroot was currently having trouble keeping all of the guards at bay.

The plant-duck noticed the purple-cloaked imps rushing towards him and mentally groaned, expecting them to be higher-ranking guards and probably even harder to beat. However, he didn't expect to see one shoot electricity at the yellow-cloaked imps, one throw what could best be described as chattering fake teeth, one use martial arts moves, one use arrows, and the final to shoot a blast of water just past the duck's shoulder where an imp was sneaking up on him while he was distracted.

The one that shot water quickly moved up to the prince. "Miss me?" he asked cheerily.

"Licky?" Prince Bushroot asked in hope.

"The one and only," the other prince chimed, using a strong force of water to break the chains holding the duck, "Are you going to continue to help or continue to talk?"

The plant prince remembered that they were currently in a battle and continued to have the flora around him assist in taking down the rest of the imp guards while the five in purple cloaks used their preferred choice of fighting.

A small explosion of fire very close to him singed Prince Bushroot's petals and made him jump into Prince Liquidator to try and avoid the resulting flames. The plant-duck winced as he mentally heard the burning plant life cry in pain.

"Reggie!" Prince Liquidator helped his friend up, putting out the burning ends of his petals. He watched the other prince in concern.

More explosions happened around the field, making Prince Bushroot wince even more, and causing the rescue party and the princes have to stick close to avoid getting burned.

Emperor Negaduck came into sight, his threatening appearance as frightening as it ever was. "Well, well, well, what do I have here?" the imp asked, taunting the six. "Five traitors and a stupid bug, all trapped by explosions from fireweed." The evil imp snorted and looked at Prince Bushroot. "I was going to keep you alive long enough to watch me take over the fairy kingdoms. But if you're going to cause this much trouble, I might as well skip all that. Guards!" More yellow-cloaked imps came and quickly chained the six. Negaduck watched silently before giving his next order. "Execute them. Starting with the prince."

Prince Bushroot had a sudden feeling of dread as he determined that they had lost.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Negaduck walked ahead of the others as the six soon-to-be-dead hostages were led to the execution chamber. The chamber was quite large, holding almost 100 devices to be used to torture and then kill his victims. The devices lined the walls with a clearing in the center and Negaduck's throne on one side of the clearing so he could sit and watch as his henchmen pushed the execution device of the moment into the center of the room, and watch even more excitedly as the person to torture was finally put to death. The high ceiling of the room also helped to exaggerate the cries of pain and begs for mercy through echoes.

It was one of the emperor's favorite rooms and he made sure he used it whenever he saw fit, which was sometimes quite often depending on how bad of a mood he was in. And now he had five people to torment and kill.

Wait… Five? Negaduck growled as he saw that one of the traitors they had chained up had somehow disappeared. He turned to the guards. "You had no one walking BEHIND them to make sure they wouldn't ESCAPE, didn't you?"

The guards looked quickly at each other and then at hostages. Negaduck yelled orders for them to go find the missing traitor and the guards quickly ran out of the room.

The imp emperor growled. "Knobs," he hissed, turning around and getting hit square in the face by a watery fist. Negaduck stumbled back. "What the-?"

"You can't trap water with mere chains!" Prince Liquidator taunted, taking off his disguise to his normal princely outfit, "It flows and slides through every crevice!"

Negaduck scowled and held his beak. "Oh we'll see what I can do, BUG."

With Negaduck successfully distracted, Darkwing managed to pull a skeleton key from his sleeve. The imp unlocked the chains on everyone. "Okay, now to apprehend the villain and make like a tree and leave."

"Hey," Prince Bushroot protested his choice of words.

"Sorry," Darkwing apologized just before Prince Liquidator screamed in pain.

Everyone turned to see the canine collapse into a puddle on the floor. Negaduck held up on of the torture devices he had in the room. "See this little baby? It takes away any magic it's directed at. And since fairies are magic beings and imps need to use magic powders…" He directed the device at the other five and pressed a button.

Bushroot and Megavolt immediately cried in pain and collapsed on the floor with Liquidator. With three left standing, Negaduck grinned at having to deal with only a few imps. "Now, to take care of you three," he said, slipping the device on his belt.

"I think you'll find us tough to deal with!" Darkwing shouted, jumping forward and removing the disguise to his regular clothes underneath.

"You!" Negaduck hissed, immediately fighting against the other imp.

"They look so similar," Quackerjack commented to Quiverwing.

"Yeah…" the young imp looked up at the jester. "How are you still standing?"

"I can tell you later. Ugh, my wings hurt from being under these clothes." He laughed and looked over at the two fighting imps. "Do me a favor kid, and get me that device Negaduck used. I don't want to see Megsy writhing on the floor any longer than I need to."

"Right…" Quiverwing glanced at him again before sneaking towards his father and his evil look-alike. Carefully, trying to avoid being hit, she grabbed the device from Negaduck's belt and tied it to an arrow. She aimed it for nearby Quackerjack but released the string at the wrong angle when Negaduck noticed her and tripped her up.

"Quiverwing!" Darkwing cried in concern for his daughter. He immediately tackled the emperor to get him away from her.

Quackerjack watched as the arrow flew over his head and embed itself high above him in the wall. "Oh, this will be fun. I don't get to do it often and now is a good chance." He laughed and took off his disguise to his normal clothes, stretching out his wings quickly before jumping into the air and flying towards the arrow.

Negaduck stopped fighting Darkwing for a moment to look at Quackerjack. "He's a fairy? And he looks more like a bug then the other ones!"

"Don't be silly, he can't truly be a fairy," Darkwing said, "He doesn't seem to have magic and he's flying. Fairies don't…" Darkwing stumbled back, being punched in the face as he was distracted by his observations. "Ow…" He collapsed to the ground.

Negaduck pulled out his rotating blade and stepped towards Darkwing. "I should have killed you when I had the chance." His eyes widened with surprise as an arrow shot the blade out of his hand. He groaned and pulled at his hat in anger. "Can't I please just kill at least one of these guys today? Is that too much to ask?"

Meanwhile, Quackerjack landed and began to rewire the device, using some of the parts of the toys he had with him. "Spring goes here, gear goes there… Oh look, a screw's loose… And done!" Quackerjack quickly ran back over to the fallen fairies and used the newly altered device to give back the magic it had taken from them.

Prince Bushroot groaned in pain, and got up first. "Thanks," he said to the jester, still dazed, yet now amazed with the insane fairy's competence and ability to fly. He looked off to the side and noticed Negaduck had cornered one of the imps, now revealed to him as a little girl. The plant prince quickly went forward and pulled the young girl out of the way right before the emperor went to tackle her.

Negaduck instead hit one of his torture devices and grunted in pain. "Stupid bugs…"

Prince Liquidator and Megavolt had both gotten up and regained their senses. Megavolt shook his head a little to clear his mind from the pain, taking off the useless disguise and then looked up to see Negaduck pulling out another weapon and aiming it towards Quackerjack this time. "Quacky!" the rat gasped. He snapped his fingers to make sure he had a charge and quickly looked at Prince Liquidator. "Hey Licky, how about we do something a little shocking?"

"Shocking?" the canine asked before grinning. "You mean like for once combining water and electricity in a good way?"

Quackerjack struggled in Negaduck's grasp, trying to get away before he was killed. The emperor let go of the clown in surprise when they were both suddenly covered in water. "What the-?" the imp asked as Quackerjack hopped away in a fast pace. Negaduck soon learned what was going on when Megavolt shot electricity at the puddle he was standing in, electrocuting the evil emperor thoroughly until he collapsed on the floor, charred and twitching and barely conscious anymore.

Quiverwing got down from Prince Bushroot's arms and helped her dad back up. The fairies gathered with them in the center of the room. All six of them were on guard as Negaduck's cronies entered the room, surrounding them all.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

The cloaked imps moved forward slowly, keeping the others wary of their actions. A few walked up, wearing rubber gloves and carrying rubber-coated chains. They quickly worked to chain up the still electrified Negaduck.

The four fairies and two imps blinked in confusion, lowering their guard slightly.

"Um… What's going on?" Prince Liquidator asked.

One of the imps spoke up. "What's going on is that we're locking up that tyrant who was forcing us to work for him. He's a horrible emperor, we're really glad that you were able to take him down!"

"Yeah!" another agreed, "We would have taken him down ourselves, but he would have killed us!"

"We want to go back to our old emperor," the first one to speak continued. "He was much better at ruling, even if he was slightly incompetent."

"You mean Darkwing?" Prince Bushroot asked pointing at the imp standing next to him. Prince Liquidator took on a look of realization as he figured out why Darkwing had struck him as familiar.

Darkwing frowned a little. "I'm not incompetent…"

"Then why was it that the fairies were the ones to take down Negaduck in the end?" one of the imps asked.

"Well… Because…"

"Hey, go easy on him," Prince Liquidator interrupted. "If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have been able to defeat Negaduck. Sure he didn't do a very good job fighting, but he was the one that got us here in the end."

"You mean to the execution chamber?" Quackerjack grinned.

"Oh hush," Megavolt whispered to the duck, leaning in close to him.

The jester grinned and held onto Megavolt's hand. "Thanks for saving me," he whispered.

"You too," the rat whispered back.

After Negaduck was taken away, everyone was ushered outside. Many of the imps left to go change out of the horrid yellow outfits and Darkwing and Quiverwing stayed with the fairies.

"We will probably have the coronation ceremony to reinstate me as emperor, tomorrow," Darkwing said, "You can come in you want, but I'm sure you'd like to go home right now."

"That's an understatement," Prince Bushroot muttered. "Oh! That reminds me, Licky!" The plant-duck turned to the watery canine. "It was Negaduck who was causing all the fighting, using hellbine powder. It was what made you act so irritable on the boat as well. So that means that we don't have to marry anymore, since the fighting can now stop."

"Really? That's… Great…!" Prince Liquidator gave a false grin. Frankly, he wouldn't have mind marrying Reggie anymore. His talk with Darkwing the night before showed him that he did have feelings for the plant-duck, but it didn't seem like Reggie felt the same way.

The watery prince decided to distract himself for the moment and looked at Darkwing. "So that's why I recognized you. You were the emperor of Dawidu."

The imp smiled and nodded. "Yep. And as emperor, I'll be sure to reestablish good ties with the fairy kingdoms. We can be friends, right?"

Prince Liquidator nodded. "Of course, right Reggie?"

The plant duck nodded. "Right. Thanks so much for helping rescue me. It'll be good to know that we can have a trustworthy ally."

Darkwing grinned. "Same here."

"Are we there yet?" Quackerjack whined, "I want to go home now."

"Right," Prince Liquidator sighed at the jester's behavior. "We can go now."

"Next time you visit, show me some of your toys!" Quiverwing told Quackerjack, "Those seem cool!"

The clown smiled ecstatically. "Anytime!"

Megavolt raised his brow at the little imp. "Where were you?" he asked.

"Signing autographs," Quiverwing answered.

Darkwing bent down and hugged his daughter. "That's my girl! Already getting a good fanbase! Incidentally, why has no one asked ME for autographs?"

"Dad!" she whined, pulling away from her dad in embarrassment.

The older imp stood back up and looked at the fairies. "Stand close together and hold your breath," he said as he pulled out the jet powder again. He threw the powder to cover the fairies and at that moment they were sent back home to the fairy kingdoms, welcomed back to concerned families with a story to tell.

After that there were no more petty fights between the Kingdom Lycium and the Kind Ja-Ang and the two princes no longer needed to marry.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10 – Epilogue

It had been a week since the coronation ceremony in the Empire Dawidu for Darkwing. The royal families of the two fairy kingdoms had come to watch, along with Quackerjack and Megavolt. Everyone was grateful that things could now go back to normal.

It had been a week since the princes had last seen each other. Prince Bushroot felt like something was missing, but he couldn't bring himself to speak up to the other prince in fear of what he would say. Between everything that had happened over a week ago with the fighting caused by the hellbine powder, meeting Licky, and taking down an evil emperor, you would think he would have enough courage to admit his feelings to the one it mattered most to.

As Prince Bushroot searched for Megavolt, he couldn't help but remember that hellbine also went by the name of love vine… He sighed, shaking the thought from his head and continued to look for his friend. It was almost dark and he wondered where the rat could be. Megavolt had been sneaking off a lot lately…

The duck turned the corner and was surprised to walk straight into a familiar body of water. "Oof… Li… Licky?"

Prince Liquidator was surprised as well. "Reggie?" He smiled. "It's great to see you, but what are you doing out here?"

"I could ask you the same," the plant prince answered, pulling away. "I'm looking for Megavolt. He's been disappearing a lot recently."

"Really?" The watery canine raised his brow. "So has Quackerjack. You know what, they're probably together."

Prince Bushroot nodded. "Probably. They were really so clingy with each other last week… Do you think they like each other?"

"Most likely." The two stood in silence for a moment watching as the street lamps were suddenly lit. Prince Liquidator spoke up again. "So do you want to look for them together? Since they probably are with each other, you know?"

"Sure." The plant prince nodded and walked with the other prince in the lamp light. "So… How have things been in Ja-Ang?"

"Fine. As boring as usual. I had to work more on my lessons since my mother found out that I've been skipping out on the 'more important' ones. The ones about the current rulers of places…"

"I see." Prince Bushroot nodded, becoming silent again. "You know…" he said after a moment. "It's been a week. If we didn't solve the problem of the fighting, we would have been married by now."

"Yeah, you're right," Prince Liquidator mused. "Too bad."

"Wait, what? What do you mean by 'too bad'?"

"Oh! Um…" The watery canine began to bubble in embarrassment. "I mean that… Obviously not that the fighting should still be happening but that…" He sighed, seeing the other prince's confused face. "Listen, Reggie, I really… Like you…"

"You… Do?"

Prince Liquidator nodded. "I can understand if you don't like me back… You seemed so eager to get the marriage canceled."

"That's because I don't want to get married right away. I'd rather have an actual relationship first." Prince Bushroot frowned and looked at the canine. "But I thought you didn't like me. I… I do like you, but… I didn't know…"

The watery prince smiled and cupped the duck's cheek. He leaned in and gave him a small kiss. "Reginald," he whispered.

Prince Bushroot was surprised at first, but then smiled and leaned into the other prince's arms as he held him. "You called me Reginald," he said softly, "So… You really do care."

"Of course." The princes were about to kiss again when insane giggling was heard.

Quackerjack and Megavolt walked up to them, holding each other's hand. "So you do like each other!" Quackerjack grinned.

"Yeah…" Prince Liquidator said, "What's it to you? You like Megavolt."

"So?" Megavolt asked. "At least we admitted we liked each other right away. You guys took days to admit it."

"It was only a week!" Prince Bushroot protested.

"Anyway…" the jester laughed, "Megsy and I are on a date right now. You two can come along. It can be a double date!"

Megavolt frowned for a moment and then grinned. "Yeah! And then we can make fun of you!"

The clown and the rat laughed at this and Prince Liquidator gave them an annoyed glared. "How about we have the double date, but you DON'T make fun of us, and I won't get you soaking wet?"

The two immediately stopped laughing. Quackerjack pouted. "Oh fine… Spoil-sport."

"I want to know something though," Prince Bushroot said. "Why is it that you don't have magic and you can fly?"

"Oh that?" Quackerjack grinned. "It's not too important right now, is it? I'll tell you later, but right now Megsy and I are on a date. Are you two coming along?"

The jester and the rat started to walk off. The two princes looked at each other, smiling, and then quickly followed after their friends. Prince Liquidator and Prince Bushroot held hands, finally feeling complete with their lover.

The End

* * *

Merry Christmas. And thank you for reading!


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